Editorial

Lang Tombong Tamba and Kawsu Bombardier Camara: Lessons Learnt the Hard Way

By Mathew K Jallow, Associate Editor

The news engineered mixed emotions. Muffled joy and dizzying disbelief is perhaps the best way to capture the developing scenario in Banjul. The news is very familiar though; firing, arrest and detention, which is why we are hardly surprised by it all. But, in another world, the arrest and detention of the head of the armed forces would not be just another story for another day; it would be the story for the day. But this is Gambia, a country with a pitiful and submissive people who have shrugged off Yahya Jammeh’s foibles, criminal activities and infractions as easily as one would swat away an irritating fly. Now though, our abstraction of reality is catching up with us slowly, one person at a time. Never mind yesterday. Today it is Lang Tombong Tamba, and the much feared Kawsu (Bombardier) Camara, who will bear testament to a cycle that, knows no end. But, we saw this coming, didn’t we? At least some did. It was only a matter of time. And it is not as if we have the gift of clairvoyance as Jammeh claims to have; a bit of common sense and a healthy dose of logical deduction was enough to draw a conclusion based on history, precedence and the facts on the ground.

Our country has been on this destructive path for all these years, yet we as citizens, have been complacent and unwilling to stand up for liberty and freedom for ourselves and our people. Let us look at history for a moment; recent history for that matter. Every one that Jammeh has drawn into his orbit, his fortified inner circle, and every one he has used as a buffer of protection for himself, he eventually cast away in characteristic Jammeh style; and ironically enough, he did so ostensibly for his protection. Jammeh’s nemesis come in different stripes and hues, but the impulse to discard them with reckless abandon is the same. There are those who, plain and simple, know far too much incriminating evidence to tag the emperor with. Their continued freedom is a threat to his liberty. Yet, others no longer subscribe to Jammeh’s narrow-minded philosophy of tribal politics, his population containment through intimidation, the never ending cycle of arrest and detention, and his government of one person. And they too must go. Barely three years ago, many members of the Jammeh inner circle died in short order after brief illnesses, and the conventional belief is that they were poisoned on Yahya Jammeh’s orders.

But today, Lang Tombong and Kawsu Camara can thank their stars that Jammeh will not dare kill them as he did to their predecessors. Jammeh is now a politically weakened pulp of nothingness; a scared bulldog whose brutality and toxicity has been neutralized greatly and his penchant for brutality can find no easy escape. Largely due to efforts of the online media and regional and international rights organizations, Yahya  Jammeh has lost his magic, as well as his old gravitas, and is increasingly becoming a prisoner within his own body, to say nothing of the way he is being abandoned by those who kept him safe all these years. And for Jammeh, it is as if the end is here; for truth be told, his irrationality and bizarre behavior mirrors the end days of dictators gone long time ago. And with Lang Tombong and Kawsu Bombardier Camara contained in the emotional emptiness of Mile 2, Prisons, Yahya Jammeh is a shadow of his former self. The fear and paranoia that has consumed him is appealing to the lowest common denominator of his human instincts. For beginning with his dramatic separation from Sana Sabally so long ago, to the Edward Singhateh’s surprise fall from grace, Daba Marenah and Co. disappearances, and now, Lang Tombong and Kawsu Bombardier Camara’s unceremonious parade to Mile 2; the stories bear an eerie likeliness to Greek fables of cunning, deceit and abandonment. But, the one thread embodied in this narrative is the fact that the victims never seem to learn from the past; from history.

So today Lang Tombong and Kawsu Camara sit isolated and pondering about the rest of their lives; the horror stories they orchestrated and the murders and tortures carried out by them or their proxies, perhaps a mere blip in their memories. Yet we would fight for them too, despite being parties to Jammeh’s criminal enterprises over all these years. However, we will not forget how easily they slipped into savagery to carry out Jammeh’s orders of brutality. And as we come to the conclusion of this editorial, yet more news of arrests of more of Jammeh’s former close associates; this time of Yankuba Touray. The erstwhile Fisheries Minister is best known as a co-conspirator in the assassination of Koro Ceesay and for luring Mr. Ceesay to his home, where he was murdered, driven in his official Mercedes Benz vehicle to a forest around Brikama, where the vehicle was torched under cover of darkness to destroy the evidence. The news of Koro Ceesay’s charred body horrified the nation. But as Yankuba Touray awaits his fate too, it is not a time for us to gloat and rejoice in his demise. The danger is far from over as long as Yahya Jammeh walks free. He is the real elephant in the room; the cancer in our country; the one who is standing in the way of our freedom; and the one we must resolve to have arrested and put behind the iron gates of Mile 2 Prisons.

Ours are lessons learned the hard way, and now it is time to get out there and get the idiot; Yahya Jammeh. And we once again call on our military to make the final push to free our beloved country. The arrests and detentions are a saga that will never end as long as Jammeh holds power. We the civilian population don’t know about you, but are sure we cannot continue to live this way indefinitely. The military is in disarray, while our civil service is dysfunctional and in tatters, the population is suffering, but putting on a brave face, and now the whole world is paying attention to the dictatorship ruining our country one day at a time. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH ALREADY!